Varvid: Internet Delivered Video Solutions, Live Streaming & Productionhttp://www.varvid.com
Live Streaming, The Connected Event for Brands and their FansThu, 16 Jul 2015 19:43:05 +0000en-UShourly1A Day Without Photonics: A modern horror storyhttp://www.varvid.com/2014/05/a-day-without-photonics-a-modern-horror-story/
http://www.varvid.com/2014/05/a-day-without-photonics-a-modern-horror-story/#commentsThu, 08 May 2014 21:32:17 +0000http://www.varvid.com/?p=5321Recently SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics, approached our team to produce an educational video for their most recent national campaign highlighting career opportunities in optical engineering to high school students. As we love helping local organizations tell their story to the world, we gladly accepted the challenge!

The eight-minute video, A Day Without Photonics: A modern horror storywas produced and filmed in Bellingham, WA using local talent and crew, including Binary Recording Studio for location audio recording. Key members of Varvid’s post-production department, Colin Dalvit and Richard McLean, produced the special effects, music, and editing. And our own Director of Business Development, Drew Graham, was cast as the father.

Richard McLean, on working with local clients, “One of the best experiences of working on this project was going to Sehome High School and working with some awesome student actors.”

Since the video was posted to YouTube in April it is quickly approaching 1,000 views. To aid with views of the video SPIE has been doing an exceptional job with video social media promotions. Check out the Tweet below:

A little bit about SPIE: Simply put, SPIE is an international not-for-profit society founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. SPIE is located in Cardiff, Wales and headquartered out of Bellingham, Washington. Click here to learn more about SPIE.

The videos were showcased at the 2014 Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain. Notable keynote speakers at the conference included:

Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook

Virginia Rometty, Chairman, President, and CEO of IBM

John Chambers, Cisco Chairman & CEO

Varvid’s crew captured footage at Samsung offices in San Francisco, San Diego, and Santa Clara, including interviews and B-roll vital to each project.

At Varvid headquarters in Bellingham, Skype calls were captured from Samsung offices in South Korea, Abu Dhabi, India, and Washington DC. Varvid’s editors worked closely with a Samsung Marketing representative to turn the projects around quickly.

Colin Dalvit added 2D & 3D animated opens and maps to help add to the overall production value.

The videos were a very successful and integral part of the Samsung presentation and as a result, Varvid has been recognized as a Preferred Provider for Samsung Telecommunications America.

Have you ever wondered where legends are born? Legends are born at Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering Pro Tours, the highest form of competitive play for the premier collectible card game.These top-ranked players enjoy the spoils available to those living the life of a professional Magic player, at four annual worldwide stops making up the Tour.

Each event showcases a prize pool of $250,000. In addition, the highest level players are selected to play in the annual World Magic Cup – with an additional $250,000 purse. In all of the tiers of play, there are thousands of participants from around the world facing off to earn the right to play at the professional level so that they too can play the game and see the world.

For the past ten years Varvid has been providing online match coverage for Hasbro’s worldwide Pro ToursFor the past ten years Varvid has been providing online match coverage for Hasbro’s worldwide Pro Tours. Pro Tour Born of The Gods, Wizard’s most recent tournament, live streamed from Valencia, Spain and garnered almost a million online viewers who tuned in to see the three-day match coverage. Magic The Gathering hopefuls from around the world were watching every move the seasoned hall of fame players made as they dueled for the final cash prize of $40,000.

CEO of Varvid, Aaron Booker, said “In this era, attention spans are short. Wizards realized early on that their audience expected video coverage of the tournament as rapidly as possible. We deliver Magic’s Pro Tour tournament video match coverage to the Internet live and rebroadcast it within minutes after live streaming. This is extremely important to the Hasbro Magic: The Gathering brand and its community.”

Interested to know when the next Pro Tour will be available to view? Tune in May 16th-17th for the Journey Into Nyx Pro Tour: click here.

]]>http://www.varvid.com/2014/03/where-are-legends-born/feed/0Join us for the Bellingham Art Walk Friday, Feb. 7!http://www.varvid.com/2014/02/join-us-for-the-2014-bellingham-art-walk-friday-feb-7-at-the-varvid-office/
http://www.varvid.com/2014/02/join-us-for-the-2014-bellingham-art-walk-friday-feb-7-at-the-varvid-office/#commentsTue, 04 Feb 2014 23:25:29 +0000http://www.varvid.com/?p=5096Varvid is excited to showcase two amazing local Bellingham artists at the upcoming art walk, put on by the Downtown Bellingham Partnership. On Friday, February 7 at 6:00pm PST Varvid will be hosting mixed medium artist Courtney Starks and live streaming music from the band The Prozac Mtn Boys.

Courtney Starks

Courtney Starks is a technical artist and software developer, as well as a fine artist. It is her objective to observe an idea or invention of another, and convey it effectively to an audience through creative and elegant design.

“Nature is a presence of steadfast beauty, and pondering or adventuring among it holds my interest. Through artistic mediums of charcoal and oil, I endeavor to capture the things that exist among us – to hold them in time as if to preserve them. I have been creating mixed medium artworks for nearly ten years, and it inspires me to share this work with others.”

Join us at Varvid Headquarters during the first Friday of every month for the Bellingham Art Walk from 6 – 10pm PST at 1319 Commercial St. #201.

Not able to make it?

Worried about not being able to attend and miss out on the live performance? Well that’s no problem, Varvid will be live streaming the event starting at 6:30 p.m. PST. Visit this website and watch the event from home! http://firstfriday.varvid.com/

]]>http://www.varvid.com/2014/02/join-us-for-the-2014-bellingham-art-walk-friday-feb-7-at-the-varvid-office/feed/0Happy Holidays from the Varvid Team!http://www.varvid.com/2013/12/happy-holidays-from-the-varvid-team/
http://www.varvid.com/2013/12/happy-holidays-from-the-varvid-team/#commentsThu, 19 Dec 2013 15:00:25 +0000http://www.varvid.com/?p=4900We hope you and yours have a great holiday season!

Varvid Christmas 2013 video

]]>http://www.varvid.com/2013/12/happy-holidays-from-the-varvid-team/feed/0How to Build a Zombie – A Varvid Animation by Colin Dalvithttp://www.varvid.com/2013/11/how-to-build-a-zombie-a-varvid-animation-by-colin-dalvit/
http://www.varvid.com/2013/11/how-to-build-a-zombie-a-varvid-animation-by-colin-dalvit/#commentsTue, 19 Nov 2013 19:37:59 +0000http://www.varvid.com/?p=4772If you haven’t already taken a look at the original video of our Halloween animation here’s another chance – watch it now!

Varvid Halloween Zombie Video – varvid.com/blog

Did you survive? … Good. Some viewers on social media thought Richard was wearing a mask, others were just too freaked out to notice the detail. Several of our followers on Facebook asked how we created the modeling for Richard’s face, so our lead animator Colin Dalvit put together a short piece to share his process with everyone!

Making of Varvid Halloween Zombie – varvid.com/blog

Disclaimer: Watch at your own risk. No Richards harmed in the making of this video.

]]>http://www.varvid.com/2013/11/how-to-build-a-zombie-a-varvid-animation-by-colin-dalvit/feed/0Building a Strong Brand is More Than Having a Cool Web Sitehttp://www.varvid.com/2013/07/building-a-strong-brand-is-more-than-having-a-cool-web-site/
http://www.varvid.com/2013/07/building-a-strong-brand-is-more-than-having-a-cool-web-site/#commentsThu, 25 Jul 2013 14:30:55 +0000http://www.varvid.com/?p=3305One of the most engaging brands most of us have ever experienced is Starbucks. You can not only actually smell their brand, but also experience it when you walk into their shops and speak to a barista to order your coffee – it’s visceral and makes you feel rich, that’s why Starbucks customers pay more for a cup of coffee than most.

You can not only actually smell their brand, but also experience it

Ok, so your company isn’t Starbucks spending millions on building brand so how do you learn to build or create a brand? There are so many parts to building brands, I’ll keep it simple for now.

The difference between marketing and building brand is branding is a much larger and more strategic positioning of your company, service or product and marketing is the actions you take to distribute the message to your audience.

Or you can think of it this way. People are loyal to (and keep buying from) brands, but make a buying decision because they were touched by some type of marketing activity – an online ad, an email, etc.

Assuming you have consistency in marketing activities across the following areas, you are on your way to helping give your company some brand personality.

Host and promote events to educate and engage your audience – connected events engage the audience; you could host your own event or sponsor someone else’s.

A strong brand image that helps support your marketing activities are the roots of the tree and your marketing activities are the fruit that prospects pluck from the tree. As you think of your brand image start to imagine how the following all look and feel to people who are seeing your company from the outside.

Company and or product logo

Tagline

Look, feel and experience on your web site and or inside your office or at your location

When customers meet and discuss business with your people

Events you host or sponsor

Videos they watch

Emails they read

Social media sites customers might interact with

These are just a few areas that great brands build a cohesive look around.

At Varvid we do everything from live webcasting to video marketing with animation, web site design and product design. One of our favorite clients we love that has a great brand is Wizards of the Coast. If you didn’t already know, Varvid webcasts their annual international Magic the Gathering tournament live over the Internet.

This brand is an experience. Not only do people play the game on XBox, there is a card game along with a very powerful social media presence that requires engagement. And each year, Magic the Gathering hosts an invite-only playing of the game to crown the champion. Varvid has the honor of broadcasting it on the Internet to thousands of followers. It is so cool!

If you have not started thinking about your brand, Varvid encourages you to start – people stay loyal to great brands.

]]>http://www.varvid.com/2013/07/building-a-strong-brand-is-more-than-having-a-cool-web-site/feed/03 Things You Should Be Learning From Your Video Content Marketinghttp://www.varvid.com/2013/06/3-things-you-should-be-learning-from-your-video-content-marketing/
http://www.varvid.com/2013/06/3-things-you-should-be-learning-from-your-video-content-marketing/#commentsThu, 27 Jun 2013 18:21:09 +0000http://www.varvid.com/?p=2957If you were not already aware, marketing is a continuous activity successful businesses do really well. Nothing you didn’t already know, right? But did you know that great marketing organizations are able to show you how well your messages are resonating with your audience?

That’s right, today’s great marketing resources enable you to monitor the following after your videos are released. It’s not enough to just see if people are playing your videos, you need to learn:

1. Are people watching and re-watching your videos and where are they being played from?

It is important to not only know if people are viewing your videos, but if are they re-watching them. This could be an indication the message is important enough to watch twice!

2. How are the videos being played and who is watching them?

As you look at which video is getting the most play, you will want to know which messages in each video is being focused on. For example, in this video the red indicates a part of the video that has been replayed over and over again. This is a strong indication that the message being viewed is resonating or confusing to viewers. In either case, this is an opportunity to put more focus on this particular message in your next video.

3. Where do people stop watching your videos?

Knowing where viewers stop watching or skip ahead to is just as important as knowing where they are being rewound to be watched again. This may indicate a video message that was too long or boring.

At the end of the day, your marketing (video or otherwise) should be teaching you about which message is playing well with viewers and readers.

Stay tuned for more details as we learn whether or not this email was valuable for you. Learn more about how Varvid Subscriptions can help your video content marketing efforts.

In our last blog we talked about how savvy marketers are opting for live streaming of video to make their events available to remote audiences, as well as giving their live and Internet audiences the ability to communicate with an event moderator via Twitter – otherwise known as live webcasting. This was exactly what Varvid did with Wistia, Contest Domination and other companies at the Video Marketing Explain-a-Thon held at the Hard Rock Café in downtown Seattle.

Varvid has been streaming events live for more than a decade, but what’s new as of late for a lot of our clients is the addition of combining Twitter to the online event video player – this way attendees can see the interactions they are having with the event host by using hashtags when they post on Twitter.

Varvid has been streaming events live for more than a decade.

This fact was brought to our attention in a recent blog written by Stephanie Clifford called A Front Row Seat via Video where she explains that “As more brands offer live videos of the shows, regular viewers see exactly what the buyers and editors are seeing, and influence what will be made by pausing on an outfit or posting Twitter messages about a particular style.”

In other words, the content at the shows can be discussed, influence viewers, and create trending conversations that are tracked and searchable by search engines (like Google).

The morale of the story: if you have an event you want people to engage in and develop a following with – leverage the expertise of a company that understands how to live stream events with an internet video broadcast, and host conversations with the audience via Twitter – these are connected events!

]]>http://www.varvid.com/2013/06/live-streaming-broadcasts-and-twitter-for-events-a-must/feed/0“Connected Events” use live video streaming to connect local attendees on the webhttp://www.varvid.com/2013/04/live-video-streaming-or-live-webcasting-modern-event-marketing/
http://www.varvid.com/2013/04/live-video-streaming-or-live-webcasting-modern-event-marketing/#commentsTue, 30 Apr 2013 08:45:21 +0000http://www.varvid.com/?p=2444

In today’s fast paced world where everyone is on a device and on the move, live video streaming for business and networking events is becoming strategic to event planners and event companies providing solutions for client events.

In a recent blog post written by Sandra O’Loughlin, Savvy Marketers Are Bringing Their Events to a Screen Near You, she declares that “events can be the stuff of great stories,” and some marketers “are taking the next chapter online.” So, if you are marketing your event you need to be able to stream live video.

Marketers are taking the next chapter online.

The ability to provide live video streaming is like having a live satellite broadcast on television, but instead live streamed via the Internet. This concept isn’t new, but when you consider that YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and videos (live or recorded) are being watched everywhere online, it only makes sense that live streaming is becoming an integral part of marketing for events where not everyone can attend in person. Just as Netflix has become a fantastic online way to view top shelf Hollywood content – live streaming is a great way to deliver great event content. Ted Talks are a perfect example of expanding the reach of one’s event. (We LOVE Ted Talks, whether live or on demand!)

This powerful combination of video and live streaming is what Varvid is calling The Connected Event. In fact, a recent case study highlights how Virgin used video marketing to boost sales by 28.5%. It’s here to stay!

If you’d like to experience this in person or by live streaming video, you can register for an upcoming event called The Video Marketing Explain-A-Thon put on by Wistia at The Hard Rock Cafe in Seattle:

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

5:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Hard Rock Cafe – 116 Pike St Seattle, WA 98101

Varvid will be working in conjunction with the following participating companies to teach Event Planners, Marketing Professionals, Business Owners and Marketing Directors how to use video to market their businesses: